The present invention relates to a seat back lock and especially to a seat back lock in a vehicle to enable a seat back to stand up.
A known seat lock in a vehicle comprises a locking mechanism having a locking lever mounted to a seat back of a rear seat and engagable with a striker of the vehicle and a release lever engagable with the locking lever; and a knob connected to the release lever, unlatching of the knob allowing the release lever to move from a locked position to an unlocked position to disengage the striker from the locking lever to allow the seat back to move from a standing position to a folding position.
As disclosed in Japanese. Utility Model Registration No.2,604,685, when a locking lever is engaged with a striker, a knob is moved to the first position, and when the locking lever is disengaged from the striker, the knob is allowed to move down from the first position to the second position, so that an indicator near the knob is exposed to enable a passenger to visually recognize a position of the knob and to confirm engagement of the locking lever with the striker easily.
However, in the seat lock in a vehicle, travel of the knob between the first and second positions is directly connected to travel of the release lever. Thus, unlatching of the knob causes the release lever to move from a locked position to an unlocked position and the release lever has to be kept in the unlocked position even though the locking lever disengages from the striker thereby resulting in complicate structure of the seat lock.
Distance of the travel of the knob between the first and second positions is determined by distance of unlatching of the release lever between a latched position and an unlatched position. Accordingly, the travel of the knob between the first and second positions becomes the same as unlatching distance to make it impossible to determine movement of the knob between the first and second positions.